Report: AVs and MaaS could ‘reduce traffic by 14%’

If you replace today’s traditional private car ownership with a mixture of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and on-demand autonomous vehicles (AVs) running door-to-door, you could make dramatic cuts in city traffic, according to new research. The Oslo Study – How autonomous cars may change transport in cities shows that, “in the most optimistic scenario a reduction of 14 % traffic is possible”. But researchers warn that the traffic reduction potential “is less than estimated in previous studies from other citi
May 16, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
If you replace today’s traditional private car ownership with a mixture of Mobility as a Service (8356 MaaS) and on-demand autonomous vehicles (AVs) running door-to-door, you could make dramatic cuts in city traffic, according to new research.


The Oslo Study – How autonomous cars may change transport in cities shows that, “in the most optimistic scenario a reduction of 14 % traffic is possible”. But researchers warn that the traffic reduction potential “is less than estimated in previous studies from other cities” and it could increase if the mix is not right.

Oslo, this year’s European Green Capital, wants to reduce car use by a third before 2030.

The study was undertaken by COWI and PTV on behalf of Ruter, the Oslo regional public transport operator. Modelling a variety of scenarios, they found that traffic would get worse without ride-sharing – or if MaaS “became more attractive than traditional public transport”.

The Oslo study “assumes a very high level of service”. If users were instead happy with longer waiting times before a vehicle shows up, or would put up with longer detours, “the effect on traffic will be substantially better”, with traffic volumes reduced by up to 31%, the researchers conclude.

• Full story in the May-June issue of ITS International magazine

Related Content

  • Cities get road priorities right
    March 22, 2022
    Cities including Paris, Milan and London have all announced serious expansions to their bicycling infrastructure over the last few years. The era of active travel is here, finds Alan Dron
    Read More
  • Battery bottleneck: EV roll-out at risk
    June 17, 2019
    In order for the take-up of electric vehicles – a key part of the future mobility mix - to grow, we need batteries. And that might prove tricky, reports Graham Anderson Industry and commodities experts fear that the growth in electric vehicles (EVs) could be much slower than predicted due to bottlenecks in global battery market supply chains. “People seem to think that the switch from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles just means you plug your car in rather than fill it with petrol,” a
    Read More
  • Future traffic management needs new thinking, new technology
    January 23, 2012
    One of the biggest problems facing US ITS professionals, says Georgia DOT's Hugh Colton, is the constrained thinking which is sometimes forced upon those making procurement decisions. It is time, he says, to look again at how we do things. In the November/December 2010 edition of this journal, Pete Goldin interviewed Joseph Sussman, chairman of the US's ITS Program Advisory Committee. Amongst other observations that Sussman made was that, technologically, ITS in the US is 10 years behind that in the world-l
    Read More
  • 'Talking cars' could save lives, study says
    November 26, 2020
    ITS Australia-led research suggests curve warnings on roads would help drivers
    Read More

Highlighted Content